73 Quotes by Johnny Marr

I moved to Portland because Modest Mouse is there. I didn't necessarily mean to live there permanently, but I've got a really good feeling for it. The sensibility there really suits me. I happened to have grown up in Manchester, a city that was a pretty cool place to be a musician. It's close to Portland in a lot of ways.

The reason I don’t drink is that the drinking lifestyle robs me of my musical intensity and sharpness. I live a super-healthy lifestyle not because it’s sensible or that I’m contrite, but because I need to keep my focus on the music I’m making. To do that, I need to be wide awake.

I’ve also been with the same girl, Angie, since I was 15.

I’m not interested in trying to have people who might like other kinds of music follow me. I don’t want to please them.

Don’t get me wrong, I think “Portlandia” is really funny, and quite brilliant, but I like to be in a city where I can hang out in Powell’s Bookstore most nights and go out with my friends in a liberal, relaxed atmosphere. I wish more cities were like that.

I really had a great time working with ‘Modest Mouse,’ just because of the people. I loved writing songs with Isaac Brock, and Jeremiah Green is probably my favorite musician that I’ve worked with.

I had a feeling about what I wanted to say, and I wasn’t really qualified to discuss real things out of America because I didn’t grow up there.

Now chart music is a genre all of its own and it’s slipped away from what I understand pop music as. It’s pretty difficult to take; it clogs up the airwaves.

I don’t really care what music’s made on – I love guitars, but I’m fine with great electronic music.